‘Press Start’ on a passion project from an international array of top game artists

What happens when over 80 creators from the world’s top video game studios join forces to create the ultimate dark fantasy game? The answer is SUBSTRATA, a brilliant new art book collecting designs for the heroes, enemies, and landscapes of this hypothetical new game world…

SUBSTRATA is the brainchild of illustrator Paul Richards, who conceived of the project as a way to reunite his fellow artists from Vigil Games, makers of the Darksiders franchise. Together, they rallied a global community of artists and the result is a breathtaking tome, featuring a who’s-who of top tier talent from across the gaming industry. SUBSTRATA is a true passion-project, where artists were encouraged to forsake conventions, inhibitions, and technological limitations, to create something never seen before.

“SUBSTRATA gave us all a chance to conceive and execute our own ideas in our own voices,” said Paul Richards, Project Curator. “This is a mighty win for artists devoted to making exciting, original game content for its own sake. In that spirit, we’re proud to say all proceeds from the book will go to the charity organization Gamers For Good. Please visit them at www.gamersforgood.com”

The artists who have lent their passion to SUBSTRATA have worked on some of the top-rated AAA games in the industry. Check out this amazing list of games which have featured artwork by SUBSTRATA contributors:

“UDON is honoured to be involved with the Substrata project,” said UDON’s Managing Editor Matt Moylan. “We get to publish a book with some of the greatest game artists from around the world, and the book itself is gorgeous, really, that’s its own reward. But it was UDON’s publication of The Art of Darksiders II that spurred Paul to want to work with his studiomates again, and all of us at UDON take pride in knowing that we contributed at the inception of SUBSTRATA, and now, we’re helping to bring it to gamers and makers everywhere.”

Gamers, artists, and up-and-coming developers alike, this is your chance to see a world created from the ground up, and no fan of video game artwork should miss this unique, uncensored peek at a game project from the moment of its conception.